UPDATE: Please see Jefferson D. Tomas’ translation of this article.
The warning applies to any Swiss bank employee with access to customer data. They are being threatened with arrest in the US, France, Germany, Austria and Italy. However, the article writes that they are unlikely to be threatened with a punishment but rather that they may be called as witnesses.
Anwalt warnt Schweizer Banker vor Verhaftungen „Ich rate, das Land nicht zu verlassen“
FOCUS Online
Some of our participants are poets. Here is a sample of their work pulled out of the comment stream:
From Em, I call it, “Dotty, Potty, Naughty”:
As I pile on the years and perhaps become dotty
It’s likely my mouth will become a wee potty
And I’ll label the States as the “axis of rotty”
Then I’ll hope some Brockers will not get all haughty
And berate me for being politically naughty
Greg Miller
For a decade or so, I spent part of my year in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the center of the ancient Lanna Kingdom, and a world apart from my hectic business life in the US. It was a wonderful sanctuary for me from the stressful life of living in America. In 2011, after selling my business and renting out my California house, I pulled up stakes and made Chiang Mai my permanent home. My goal is to also permanently change my lifestyle, living a more calm existence, eating better, becoming healthier, doing only highly worthwhile endeavors, and living a happier life.
And while I have not yet achieved everything on my agenda, I am headed down the right road to that end. I own a beautiful large house in a high-end gated community of fine homes in Chiang Mai at a fraction of the cost of my pretty much “regular” California house. I enjoy adventures everyday living in this exotic tropical paradise. I own a couple of small businesses in Thailand that generate a little income for me, and I am enjoying life.
Some of my American acquaintances back home question my plan; some see it as abandoning my duty as an American to stand up for what is wrong with the country and do something about it, to march, to protest, to get involved. One person even called me a “coward” for leaving the US. I remind these friends and critics that first and foremost, I am an American, and an Expat second. I continue to vote, continue to pay US taxes and occasionally get screwed by the US government, just like every other American.
Terry Ritchie tweeted this earlier today. It tends to confirm fears about information sharing between agencies and how it may complicate things at the border. It would appear this exchange will happen only if an actual tax lien has been filed; I would suspect this won’t apply to the majority of us.
The IRS has established procedures to facilitate tax collection from taxpayers who live outside the United States. If a taxpayer has an unpaid tax liability and is subject to a resulting Notice of Federal Tax Lien, the IRS may submit identifying taxpayer information to the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS), a database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The database allows the DHS to identify taxpayers with unpaid tax assessments who are traveling to the United States for business, employment, or personal reasons (Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) §5.1.12.26). As a result, taxpayers traveling to the United States with unpaid tax assessments increasingly are being detained at the border.
Innocente made the following comment:
Swiss newspapers are reporting that two children of a Swiss asset manager were interrogated by US customs as to the whereabouts of their father, what their father did, whether their father made trips to the US, etc. They were entering the US to visit their grandparents. Sorry, interrogation of children looks like something from the Gestapo playbook. Here’s an article on it in French:
Les deux ados d’un gestionnaire de fortune genevois interpellés aux Etats-Unis
Here is a translation for the first couple paragraphs by Innocente:
“What a holiday! On a beautiful Sunday in May, two teenagers from Geneva and children of an asset manager took off from Geneva Airport. They left for the U.S. to visit their grandparents, who live in that country, while their parents remained in Switzerland. Upon arriving at the airport of a large city *, these two minors were given special attention of police. “Where is your dad? What does your dad do for a living? Has your dad ever worked in the United States? “Both young men were subject to these questions and others for six hours at the offices of the police. They weree not allowed to contact people outside. Throughout the questioning their parents and grandparents received no information. These facts, reported by a Swiss lawyer, suggest what a large part of the Swiss financial center have been fearing: the U.S. authorities have already begun to exploit the (employment) data delivered in April by five banks….”
I just came across this article http://blog.kpmg.ch/financial-services/switzerland-is-moving-towards-fatca-implementation/, I don’t recall if anyone has brought this particular article yet, but I wanted to share my thoughts on it for comment.
What I find most interesting is the following, suggesting that the banks do not need to be cancelling or refusing accounts of recalcitrants (as I have argued following my posting of the 21 June Swiss Confederation press release):
Implications for insurance companies
The issue around exiting recalcitrant account holders (i.e. a cancelation of a life insurance policy is not possible) seems now to be addressed. However, Insurance companies might now be faced with group requests under the “administrative assistance” (Amtshilfe) and need to prepare for that accordingly.Implications for banks
Similar to the insurance companies neither an exit of a recalcitrant account holder nor the withholding on proceeds is anymore required. However, Banks will as well potentially face more group requests under the “administrative assistance”. The introduction of a layer of countries that are now entering into intergovernmental agreements will add another category of FFI’s, which in practice will increase the complexity for implementation…
The power of the individual in mass modern society mostly consists in the ability to say NO — and perhaps in being prepared to accept consequences.
Consequences may include lowered standard of living, curtailment of advancement, physical relocation, social ostracism, overt state repression, abandonment of citizenship, and torture and death.
People who say NO often discover the joy of exercising freedom, and the sometimes surprising lack of immediate direct proportional consequence for standing out and speaking up. This is especially true if resistance has foundation in genuine social relationships. [See The Power of Habit for an enthralling account of how and why Rosa Parks managed to spark a revolution.]
Continue reading
I got a letter in the mail from the IRS stating that a request for transcript of tax return could not be processed because of my address across the sea. So, I called to correct the address, corrected it and then later got another letter from the IRS stating that my non-US address still didn’t match their records, which is still the case today.
Just something different this evening. Bringing a voice to social issues with art activism. Any ideas or lessons here for Brockers? How can humor or art be used to get a FATCA, FBAR or Citizenship taxation message across? Just looking for creative ideas.
